Miyake urges Obama to visit Hiroshima

Miyake, who survived the bombing by the U.S. army as a child, has called upon the American leader to accept an invitation to the city to show that he is determined to try and rid the world of nuclear arms.

He writes in the International Herald Tribune newspaper, “I realised that I have, perhaps now more than ever, a personal and moral responsibility to speak out as one who survived what Mr Obama called the ‘flash of light’.

“If Mr Obama could walk across the Peace Bridge in Hiroshima … it would be both a real and a symbolic step toward creating a world that knows no fear of nuclear threat.

If Obama took the design legend up on his offer, he would be the first president in office to visit the site of the bombing – which killed over 140,000 people in the years following the attack, including Miyake’s own mother.